minutes town council watertown, connecticut … · 2012-07-26 · town council special meeting june...

MINUTES

TOWN COUNCIL

WATERTOWN, CONNECTICUT

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2012

SPECIAL MEETING - 7:00 P.M.

WATERTOWN HIGH SCHOOL

LECTURE ROOM

324 FRENCH STREET

WATERTOWN, CT 06795

PRESENT: David Demirs

Richard DiFederico

Katherine Duplissie

Richard Fusco

Joseph Polletta

Raymond Primini, Chairman

Louis Razza

MaryAnn Rosa, V. Chairman

Thomas Winn

ABSENT:

OTHERS PRESENT: Charles Frigon, Town Manager

Attorney Joseph Summa

Attorney Kevin McSherry

David Minnich

Attorney Paul Jessell

Attorney William Stevens

1. Call Meeting to Order

Chairman Primini called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

2. Roll Call

3. Open Session (Continued from June 12, 2012) – An informal hearing will be held

on the removal of the Planning and Zoning Chairman pursuant to Watertown

Town Charter Section 406 Removal of Appointed Officials in Unpaid Positions.

Special Meeting continued to June 19, 2012.

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Raymond Primini I want to bring this meeting to order. Once again I will be asking

everyone to put your cell phones on vibrate or please shut it off. Once again I will be

making an announcement any outbursts that person will be asked to leave. I am now

going turn this over to Attorney Jessell.

Attorney Jessell I have nothing Mr. Chairman.

Raymond Primini Attorney Summa.

Attorney Summa I will call this a preliminary matter, Mr. Shaker is involved with

the Volunteer Fire Department activities tonight and couldn’t be here but he asked

that I read into the record a letter that he wrote and if you type it into the minutes with

your permission I would like to read that:

Raymond Primini okay

Attorney Summa Dear Town Council, I wanted to ask that you accept the following

into the minutes of the proceedings regarding Mr. Minnich. It is important to

recognize that I nor my family have an issue with the members of the Planning &

Zoning Board other than Mr. Minnich. My complaint was directed at him and not the

board. I/we recognize that the board spends countless of volunteer and thankless

hours protecting the interests of the Town of Watertown. I believe the board has

followed Mr. Minnich’s lead because although very devoted to Watertown, may think

Mr. Minnich is technically correct in the direction he leads them. I think the evidence

presented will show that not to be true and the board’s action following his misguided

lead should not be held against them. I found them all to be warm and welcoming in

my dealings. It was only Mr. Minnich and his bullying that I have the issue with.

The other item is that the next witness is going to go on some different issues that we

talked about last night. Before we do that I would like to highlight to you a couple

things in the exhibits last night that I think are important for your consideration, if

you could look at exhibit #5. What I would you note there that this is the meeting in

06 when the three car dealers went through the same time type of thing that Mr.

Shaker was trying to do. I point out in the very beginning where it was Mr. Minnich

who I believe was there at that time also explained to the commission what this

approval was like, it is different than normal just the approval of the location and

what is being asked. In every case what would happen is the individual would get up

and say I am moving my car dealership where the old car dealership was and they

would say okay we will waive the public hearing good luck with your business and

you will see that 3 times under Mr. Minnich’s direction. Now I would like you to look

at exhibit #6 specifically page 2 where it starts with Corey Shaker. Please put this in

perspective of a businessman coming before the zoning board for the first time. His

understanding is that this was suppose to be a chip shot bing, bing and I am out of

here. He explains the urgency and he knows exactly what he needed he said it right,

just what Mr. Byrnes testified to. I need to have a stamped site plan to go to DMV

and get the license. That is what he needed that’s what he asked for. It goes on we are

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not changing anything we want to move in there in its existing form. Very clear,

exactly what the applicant’s in 06 had said. Now please turn to the next page and I

refer you to the box where it says Mr. Chairman Minnich. He starts out by saying

certainly we want to move this forward as quickly as possible with the understanding

we want to move the project. Based on 06 I would expect at this point for him to ask

for a motion to waive the hearing or explain to the board the proper process like he

did in 06. Because the board members are now different except for 3 I believe. But

instead of explaining he basically tells him he has to have a public hearing. If he

really wanted to expedite this he could have gone what he knew was the proper

procedure to do but he doesn’t. He first says he needs to hold a public hearing. In the

same paragraph down there he raises the issue of the drainage on the property. We go

down on the next page to basically tell him that not only does he have to do the

engineering but he says it is clearly not appropriate storm management system now

and I as one member if you are going to a public hearing request a waiver of that

section of the site plan if indeed what I see from engineering standpoint does not need

improvement and I for one won’t waive that. So he’s telling them one you need a

public hearing, two you got a water problem you need engineers and pretty clearly

indicates you got to fix the water problem or I am not going to approve this. Next

page again in the box if you read there again he makes it very clear this is going to be

fixed or I am not going to approve it. Moving on the hearing is scheduled for the next

two weeks and if you could look at exhibit #7, specifically the page that is titled page

13. Mr. Shaker has now gone and hired Attorney Pilicy because of his concerns with

what happened at the last hearing. Obviously we all know who Franklin his and he

has practiced zoning and land use law for years in this town, he has represented the

town, he has represented the zoning board he knows of what he speaks. Franklin gets

up there and says they want to: use a dealership with no change to the existing site

plan. There are requirements that must be met in order to obtain a dealership license

from motor vehicle, a certificate of an approved location with the signature of the

Chairman of P & Z and a copy of the site plan certified by an engineer that’s it. He

lays it out again for Mr. Minnich what’s required. You will see when you go through

this on page 15 where Mr. Minnich continues to push on the engineering and then

about the bottom and tends to get off it and now brings up the issue of Inland &

Wetlands enforcement and you have to go in front of Inland & Wetlands. The next

page you will see Franklin Pilicy again saying I have not seen anything written by the

Wetlands officer I would disagree about the need for a Wetlands permit nothing is

changing and nothing is being done, again he says it. Mr. Minnich starts to argue then

what you see happen is Mr. Martin steps in and says it is a rough site, there is no

change I agree, it’s acceptable and they vote to close the hearing. The point is in

those other 3 cases under Mr. Minnich’s direction they knew how to appropriately

handle it and they all went through without having a public hearing. Mr. Shaker’s

feeling is that Mr. Minnich was bullying, intimidating him and disrespectful to him

and he was wrong on the wall. He should have not been forced to have the hearing. It

should not have been a 2 week delay. I would like to call Chuck Frigon as the first

witness.

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Attorney McSherry I would like to intervene for a second, I understand that

Attorney Summa wanted to clarify those exhibits but it came out of one of the

testimonies last evening and I think it is important to note that although those first

instances when we go back and we read them, we clearly are able to see that it was

staff advised. The commission thought it was an application for a site approval

location as well as the statute at that point. This comes in as a special permit and there

is a statute that deals with all of those issues as a special permit Connecticut General

Statute 8-3c which talks about special permits. Special permits have all those

criteria’s that are extensive and the regulations that relate to a site plan and special

permit for the Town of Watertown. It starts somewhere on page 137 of your

regulations you go to 170 so there are a lot of requirements. But once it comes as a

site plan with this special permit you have a whole group of criteria that has to apply

that you can’t excuse because that is how it came to you. It may very well be the

intent of the applicant was to do something different but it came to them as a special

permit application. When we get into our case we will present some additional

evidence, it is a special permit it’s a different animal.

Attorney Summa I would like to call the Town Manager.

Charles Frigon if the council has no objection to my sitting here.

Attorney Summa Chuck, did you conduct the investigation into Mr. Shaker’s

complaint?

Charles Frigon yes, I did.

Attorney Summa can you review for the Town Council what you did to conduct that

investigation.

Charles Frigon yes my office received a letter while I was on vacation in April the

I believe. What I did was once I understood the complaint that I received my

intention was to upon return from vacation notify the respondent of the complaint and

start an investigation.

Attorney Summa Chuck referring you to what is exhibit #1 which is the complaint

by Mr. Shaker. Could you look through it and point out to the Town Council the

issues that were raised and what you started to deal with.

Charles Frigon absolutely, we all have heard and understood the zoning portion of

this particular complaint. However there were several other troubling allegations

made within this complaint. As I went through the complaint looking at them I see

that a complaint was made regarding his distrust and disrespect of the staff. Refusing

to take Ruth’s and Roy’s word that the wall substitution was good. He also

disregarded the word of his own commissioner; there were 2 commissioners who

attempted to advise him that the wall was sufficient and he disregarded those as well.

Also in length here is that he was bullying town workers and that he was not in

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control by anyone or out of control. Perhaps most troubling in this complaint to me

particularly was Watertown is not open for business, very troubling I might add.

Attorney Summa going to the zoning issue complaints, in your investigation do you

find Mr. Shaker’s complaints to be accurate?

Charles Frigon yes I did.

Attorney Summa who did you talk to in terms of the zoning issues?

Charles Frigon my first point of contact was obviously our own Zoning Enforcement

Officer and I had asked her what the procedure would normally be for this type of

application. She directed me to the regulations and informed me that normally in most

circumstances the application would be submitted for there is a technical term, I don’t

have it here…first of all keep in mind there is only one application for the zoning

process that I am aware of or what I am being told. That application is for a site plan

and a special permit. Every application goes in there and somewhere in the body of

that application they would mark what that particular application required and I was

told that. Understanding that I made some other phone calls, I called Steve Byrnes

and I had asked him what typically would be done here. He went through the

explanation that I received last night. I then called the State of Connecticut and asked

for a copy of their motor vehicle license or application. Then I called the City of

Torrington and asked them what their process was. They reiterated exactly what Mr.

Byrne’s had told me and what Ruth Mulcahy had told me that the process is very

simple. It is a site plan review, a site plan is brought in, staff will generally and that is

really up to the commission, but in most communities staff will go out into the field

look at that site plan and verify it for accuracy. Is the building still where the building

shows on the site plan, has there been any additions, has there been any deletions, is

the site plan still accurate as to what is there today, if it is fine, if it’s not staff will

then go back to the commission report that and the commission would then ask for a

new A2 survey or new site plan. In this case I don’t believe that was done. I have no

evidence of that having been done and I knew an A2 was mandated by Mr. Shaker.

He brought that in and at that time was directed to go through the site plan process.

Attorney Summa do you concur with Attorney Byrne’s testimony with respect to the

KIA facility that it was inappropriately handled?

Charles Frigon I do, yes.

Attorney Summa and with respect Courtney Dodge facility?

Charles Frigon that was exactly the same and if you don’t mind just bouncing back

for a minute and I don’t know what exhibit it was but our former Town Attorney

Franklin Pilicy who we all know well had advised the commission not once but twice

that a site plan approval was not required. They acknowledged that I guess, they

closed the public hearing they went into application approval and at that point they

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still conditioned the application. Now if they didn’t know it from 2006 and if they

didn’t know from what Corey Shaker had explained and if they didn’t understand it

from what Mr. Pilicy had given them, at that point they should have understood it and

that really threw me. They wanted their application approved and they are going to

work with the zoning commission as probably most of us would and went along with

it, but the application was still conditioned.

Attorney Summa the last item from the zoning perspective was the issue of the law?

Charles Frigon yes

Attorney Summa again do you concur with the testimony of Attorney Byrnes last

night?

Charles Frigon yes I do.

Attorney Summa prior to this official complaint from Mr. Shaker, had Mr. Shaker

come to you previously to complain?

Charles Frigon yes, he called my office twice.

Attorney Summa can you relate when and…

Charles Frigon if I recollect, I recollect the conversation very well, the timing I am a

little fuzzy but I believe that the first time Mr. Shaker called me was immediately

following his initial application to the Planning & Zoning Commission. Mr. Shaker

called me and was incensed. He didn’t understand and his testimony was exactly and

I remember it well. He didn’t understand why after he went into the Planning &

Zoning Office and was told that all he needed was in Planning & Zoning an A2

survey, a site plan review and a signature for the motor vehicle license, this is what he

was told, he didn’t understand why then was he blind sided, why did he then go into

the commission and find that he had to do a full site plan application and special

permit. He didn’t get it but he was going to go with this okay that is what happened

I’ll get my engineering; I’ll do what I need to do to get that done. He was upset; he

used a term that I never heard before that on my children’s eyes I believe or

something he was really upset and then I will make this right, it’s not right this is not

right what they are doing to me they should have told me this right up front. He then

called me again a second time and he was even more frustrated than the first time. I

have received a lot of complaints over the years, I didn’t know really what to I was

kind at my wits end as well. I again reiterated to Mr. Shaker that it is inappropriate for

me to be involved in zoning matters. State statute doesn’t recognize my position, I

respect the Planning & Zoning Commission they work very hard. These regulations

are extremely confusing and again told him that you need to trust them, you need to

trust that they are doing the right thing. What did I know about the special application

at that time very little? I am kind of getting a quick course here. So I turned to calm

him down and he wasn’t any too happy and he most especially wasn’t happy with my

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answer then. Mr. Minnich does not work for me; I did not appoint Mr. Minnich, he

does not report to me, he is his own entity. Planning & Zoning is there own entity and

there is really very little that I can do. Once again I am telling you that it is

inappropriate should I even try to influence any application before Planning &

Zoning. I generally don’t even want to know what’s going on there unless it is quality

of life issues or Planning & Zoning might invite me in and ask the Town’s opinion

other than that I don’t care to get involved. Mr. Primini our Chairman stops in to see

me maybe once a week or so. He had come in maybe 10 or 15 minutes afterwards I

shared it with Mr. Primini and I said please talk to the man, you talk to Mr. Shaker

and Mr. Primini did. I believe Ray you went over to visit with him, you talked to him,

I don’t what he said, I never discussed it with you, I have to believe that you

reiterated what I said, that it is really inappropriate. But both times he was incredibly

upset and then the third time that I heard from him is when I received this formal

complaint.

Attorney Summa that is when he got the issue in March with the wall.

Charles Frigon yes, if it is March.

Attorney Summa the complaints that you got from Mr. Shaker about the treatment

have you received those complaints from other individuals.

Charles Frigon not specifically the same individuals but yeah over the course of

years I have received a number of complaints. I have had people from (inaudible) I

had both the owner of Valente, the general manager of Valente, I have had the

general contractor for Honda, I met with the number of those individuals and I have

taken complaints from numerous residents, I have taken complaints from the meat

center regarding a yoga studio, I have taken complaints from Taft School as matter of

withheld $10,000 from our annual contribution to pay for the legal fees that they

believe they incurred inappropriately, they did not believe they were responsible, they

thought they were being bullied, those were their words they withheld $10,000 from

our annual contribution to reimburse themselves, very upset.

Consistently I tell them all the same thing I am sorry, I am truly sorry but they know

what they are doing they are the professionals in zoning; I have never read the

manuals.

Attorney Summa was those complaints about rulings or about treatments?

Charles Frigon it varies, some were about rulings, some were about treatment, Taft

School they were complaining bitterly about as my memory recalls that the user being

restricted not the use, something similar to this complaint. Across the street at the

meat center I am not sure what the issue was I just remember the woman who owns it

was incredibly upset. I have received an anonymous complaint not that long ago

regarding a restaurant here in town. Did I investigate it, no it is really not my place to

investigate, that complaint was in my mind very serious. I believe the reason why we

are here tonight is we have a liability as a town and it is a very significant liability.

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We certainly don’t ever want applicants coming in after us or suing us for any

improper action. Again I am not the expert but when I read and I hear testimony from

Torrington and from Steve Byrnes that this is what should have happened, this is

what happened in the past and this is what happens throughout the state, I say to

myself yikes my job is to protect this town, that is what my job is. Is this

inappropriate or is it not? That is what I try to do now the thing with other complaints

Attorney Summa with respect to the other aspects of his complaint, the treatment of

the employees and department head and the fact that he appears out of control. Can

you relate for the Town Council the history of these with your office and Mr.

Minnich?

Charles Frigon the issues began I want to say in 2007 again I don’t know the dates it

was six month to a year after Ms. Mulcahy started her position. She would come up to

my office not routinely but often enough. She would make several complaints or

comments regarding the way that office was being managed specifically by Dave

Minnich. Those allegations included anything from typically the way most

communities work and they way that we in fact work here in Watertown. Staff would

receive application, staff would advise the applicant as to what is needed with regard

to that application. Staff would then help them prepare the application in a pre

application hearing or not. That application would then be prepared for an agenda, it

would be put on a draft agenda and once maybe twice a month the chairperson of the

Planning & Zoning would stop by the office review the agenda understand all the

intricacies of the applications that were there and that agenda would move forward.

The complaints that I was receiving early on were that Mr. Minnich was in the office

and managing all of the applications as they came in. He was very familiar with

every application as he still is as the testimony here tonight will show. He manages

those applications and Ruth’s concern was why we are doing this. Is this my job, is

this his job and why is he coming in giving me assignments. It seems like he gives me

more assignments than I can possibly handle. So those were the early on complaints,

those complaints festered into more broad complaints amongst other departments.

Specifically with engineering that they were being asked to do work outside of what

was authorized to them. They never understood is Mr. Minnich going to Mr. Berger,

why is Mr. Minnich asking somebody to do work, they don’t report to him. We had a

conversation regarding that back again in 2007, 2008 when this first start festering. I

had asked our Town Attorney Mr. Jessell to meet with myself and with Mr. Minnich,

Mr. Cavanaugh and I believe Mr. Berger may have been there it is quite awhile and

we discussed exactly that. It was agreed upon by all parties, that would not continue

and that any assignments given to any staff would either go through me or in my

absence or unavailability that it would then go to the department head and that really

holds true for zoning to. The presence in the office daily or every other day giving

assignments, talking to staff what are we doing. It was a distraction that we were

having a very difficult time dealing with.

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Attorney Summa let me stop you for a second this issue with the Engineering

Department back in 07, 08, you sat down with the Town Attorney. Did it resolve that

issue?

Charles Frigon temporarily yes.

Attorney Summa you say temporarily when did it surface again?

Charles Frigon I don’t know the exact date, obviously it has resurfaced again.

Attorney Summa did you have another meeting this past summer to go over a legal

letter that you had the Town Attorney write.

Charles Frigon yes we did.

Attorney Summa could you explain that.

Charles Frigon this was a situation that most of you are familiar with on Loop Road.

Loop Road was being constructed by a private contractor who was very aggressive

towards our inspectors. He didn’t necessarily want to comply with what our

inspectors were mandating and he was very threatening to our inspector. Inspector # 1

said I am not going back up there, I fear for my life kind of thing and Inspector #2

starting going up there and he too was threatened and said I am not going to go back

up there. So what we did is we hired an outside consultant to come in, a qualified

outside civil construction individual. Mr. Minnich took great exception to that and

said who are we to hire a contractor? We the Town of Watertown that the road that

we are going to inherit we have a responsible for inspecting it and that is who we are,

that’s is what we do. That issue wasn’t let go and that issue led to a legal opinion

which finally brought out that yes that was within our responsibility and purview to

hire an inspector.

Attorney Summa going to this past summer or fall in 2011 did you notice an

escalation in personnel problems and issues with Planning & Zoning?

Charles Frigon yes they have been escalating. The complaints to my office were far

more frequent. The moral in the Planning & Zoning Department is absolutely at the

bottom of what it should be. The office isn’t functioning anywhere near as well as it

should. I was receiving complaints almost daily and those complaints varied.

Inevitably what I would tell them is pretty much what I tell the applicant. Mr.

Minnich is the Chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission. You do not work

for him you work for me. Yes he may ask you to do something that you may or may

not want to do, if it is appropriate if you can do it, if you don’t or if its going to put

your work load behind or if he is in anyway insulting to you then you let me know

and I will intercede but until then I don’t see it, I hear you complaining, I don’t see it.

For years I have heard you complaining I don’t see it. I am not in the building with

them and that is the way we pretty much left it each time.

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Attorney Summa every time you tried to mediate between David and staff.

Charles Frigon yeah, it was mediation if you call it that. Let’s talk about liability

here, I can’t remember a time over the last year that I didn’t seriously worry about

getting an employee from a lawsuit (inaudible) because it was escalating on. Quite

frankly, I really didn’t know what was causing it, again I heard the words but I didn’t

understand what was causing it. The man is asking you to do something you do this

you do that, do it and that went on until last year.

Attorney Summa referring you to exhibit #11 the minutes of December 7, 2011

Planning & Zoning could you share with the Town Council upon your review of

those minutes what your concerns were.

Charles Frigon this was a particularly interesting evening. As I said up from 2007 to

present I have heard that they being David Minnich specifically was involved in areas

of the zoning office he wasn’t authorized to participate in. My initial reaction reading

this was holy cow what am I looking at here, okay because I have never seen this

publicly. What am I looking at, I said to myself what am I reading in these minutes, in

this staff report that has anything to do with the quality of life in Watertown. What

does it have to do with application, with enforcement, what does it have to do with

site plan review, with special meetings, with conditions of approval, what does it have

to do with any of that. What I am reading and I was flabbergasted is during a staff

report Mr. Mulcahy is asked there is one more item on your report and Ms. Mulcahy

responds yes, we did not have anything to do about the budget, I rely on Carol so on

and so forth, this was December 7th

. Most departments are barely getting their

budgets together at that time. But as I read on I am reading that I guess we are

looking for and it is not Mr. Minnich saying this, it’s Ms. Mulcahy do you mean the

software, do you mean the conference table, do you mean your bound set of State

Statues and I am reading this and again I am thinking why is this in a Planning &

Zoning Commission meeting being discussed under staff reports. To me that is

inappropriate, that is not where that belongs. That belongs in my office that belongs

in the budget office that belongs in front of the Finance Subcommittee. Certainly I am

not suggesting that the Planning & Zoning Commission should not be consulted when

it’s time to put a budget together but that is really the extent of it. You have some

input but not in front of our applicants. Are we open for business we are in front of

our applicants talking about software, conference room tables, we are talking about

bound State Statutes and then David says your commentary is the very frustration I

had when I met with you. These should be coming from you; these should be what

you want to help the office. I have met with you and with Dino, I am reading. Now

why is David meeting with Dino, Dino works across the hall he is the Building

Inspector Office he clearly does not work for the Chairman of the Planning & Zoning

Board. So again I am saying to myself I guess we really spun out of control here, he is

now talking to Dino. When I say software, Kace you are probably more familiar with

this than most, this is the software that we evaluated about two years ago. We had the

representative come in we kicked the tires sort of speak. We all agreed that we

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wanted it the $80,000 whatever it was, this is what we are going over. Then I am

reading on and it says over here Mr. Minnich says the Town Manager is not the one

that’s going to be determining what’s best for the Building Department and what is

best for the Land Use Office. What are we even talking about, this is not the

appropriate forum in front of people who want to invest money in our town, talking

about budget stuff and treating our department head the way she’s being treated on

December 7th

in the beginning of the budget process. That to me does not make sense;

in that regard. I started at that point in time to formulate again being the mediator that

I clearly needed to fix what has gone wrong.

Attorney Summa referring you to exhibit #12.

Charles Frigon it appears to be a series of emails it seems to be initiated by Ruth to

Dave regarding a telephone call. What she says in the body of the email if you need

anything please e-mail me because I am very busy today.

Attorney Summa then within an hour what was David’s response.

Charles Frigon within an hour David has gotten back to her and he wanted to know

the status of a septic regeneration field. He wanted to talk to her about a consultant

for Gowns & Knight. Apparently there was a consultant engineer that was going to be

required for that application. He also talked about 3 enforcements complaints I

forwarded to you the Triple Play regarding a landscape design, KIA lighting and 2

non conforming lights on buildings across from Daveluys. Then Ruth did get back

and she explained to David that she had talked to Day Palmer who by the way was

one of those complainants that has been in my office regarding this specific issue.

That she had talked to Day Palmer and you have said you are going to require a

consultant engineer and I said I had no knowledge of the commission deciding on a

consulting engineer because the Gowans & Knights application had not been before P

& Z yet. Then they talk about enforcement on Triple Play and the KIA dealership.

She talks about a telephone call where she was working with Mr. Shaker on the

condition of enforcement and she was interrupted by Mr. Minnich. Then she also

talks about the fixtures on the building across from Daveluys.

Attorney Summa referring you to Mr. Minnich’s email was it appropriate for him to

be forwarding enforcement complaints and monitoring enforcement complaints.

Charles Frigon no, it was testified by Steve Byrnes last night it is not appropriate for

any member of the Planning & Zoning Commission to involve themselves with

zoning enforcement issues. That duty by state statute has been handed over to our

Attorney Summa also there is an email he was discussing the case before the

application was in and outside of the hearing is that correct.

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Charles Frigon that is what is being said here. Again I am investigating this and I am

reading it for the first time and I am saying why this is going on. What you are

hearing tonight is what I was told and what was testified to us.

Attorney Summa referring to exhibit #13.

Charles Frigon this is a memo to myself from Roy Cavanaugh apparently at that

same meeting of December 7th

there were 2 meetings that he was very critical of. He

was very critical of the site plan review subcommittee meeting and there he says very

thoroughly that allegedly dealt with the issue and where he had heard comment from.

The last of his comment comes form the actual meeting of December 7th

where they

discussed in open session and his issue with the Planning & Zoning Chairman was

that at no time had the Land Use Administrator, the Planning & Zoning Commission

or the Chairman indicated to this office that there were concerns about the timeliness

or quality of the review of the submissions to Charles Berger, P.E. the Town Engineer

from or to the Planning & Zoning Department. I feel it was waste of time and

resources for the commission to routinely referring reviews for traffic and storm

water submission to third parties. What this is all about is and certainly Mr. Minnich

can explain this more clearly than I can, there is an initiative to place the burden for

the traffic studies and for storm water submissions to third parties. So when our

applicants come in for a storm water review being done in house it’s suggested to go

to the applicant and they will pay for that separately. I don’t know if you folks know

what we have in Chuck Berger, he is one of the most respected storm water people in

the State of Connecticut. He comes to us from the DEEP, he knows his work, he

knows it well, he is one of the most professional people that I have ever had the

pleasure of working with. I certainly can’t imagine again in that theme are we open or

closed for business why would we want to charge what I am reading here a third party

for storm water review. Traffic I am on the fence on that one.

Attorney Summa Chuck, referring you to the last paragraph on the first page starting

with the last sentence it appears to me.

Charles Frigon it appears to me that this is another example of that, and is in fact, a

continuation of the same attach on this department that precipitated the 8/16/11 legal

opinion from the Town Attorney that ruled against the Chairman. While I do not feel

that it is the role of the department to comment on the way that the chairman talks to

the Planning and Zoning Officer both in public and private, and the daily interference

with the routine operation of that office, which overstep the bounds of Commission’s

proper role, I do take exception to the aspersions cast by Chairman Minnich on Mr.

Berger. Mr. Berger is one of the hardest working, competent and honest persons I

have ever worked with. His conduct and professionalism have always been

exemplary. To have him maligned in a public meeting, on the record, by a public

official acting in an official capacity was unwarranted and malicious. I am going to

bring you back again this is what I was dealing with why are people so angry and

now I am starting to read these memos and in my investigation and back in December

I have read this memo as well.

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Attorney Summa Mr. Frigon in your opinion is it all appropriate to engage in this

type of chastisement of employees in public meetings.

Charles Frigon no, absolutely not.

Attorney Summa with these issues escalating and it appears that the interference or

mistreatment of employees was now being done in public. Can you explain what was

going on, how you were trying to get this resolved before it blew up?

Charles Frigon actually by some stroke of luck Mr. Martin the Vice Chairman for

Planning & Zoning called my office and wanted to meet with me and David regarding

the December meeting and wanted to share with me some of the concerns that they

had in Planning & Zoning. I mean that when I say stroke of luck because at some

point we need to start to have some conversations. We need to figure what was going

on and I thought this was an opportunity for me to figure out what is going on before

we find ourselves in some pretty serious trouble. So I agreed to meet with Mr. Martin

and Mr. Minnich sometime in December my recollection is the 18th

but I am not sure

of the day and I wasn’t available that day. So we had to reschedule and we

rescheduled for January the 3rd

Attorney Summa can you describe briefly the nature of the concerns that were

discussed in that meeting.

Charles Frigon there was maybe a dozen or 18 different concerns that were shared

with me in that meeting. What came to reality for me is really what I read in the

December 7th

meeting. We talked about many issues; we talked about the software

again. Maybe what struck me most in this is we talked about and I can read from

(inaudible) memo here that she is on the phone with Judy Wick. The person reporting

that only hears one side was talking to Judy Wick. I am thinking to myself who has a

conversation with somebody on the telephone with somebody ease dropping on the

other side of the door and reporting that back to Dave. What is going on here, I am

not liking this, I am uncomfortable with it. At the end of the day we talked about 12

or 18 different items some were relevant to the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Most were more relevant to the office.

Attorney Summa as a result of this meeting, did you reach some kind of resolution

with Mr. Minnich that day as to how you proceed.

Charles Frigon yes we did and I also want to point out at this meeting I had asked

our Town Attorney Paul Jessell to be present and I did that for one reason. Again Mr.

Minnich does not report to me, I do not appoint him and I thought it would be best if I

had somebody there with me understanding what I was understanding confirming

what I was hearing and to move on. So yes, we did have an understanding what we

decided we would do is that they would allow me a couple of weeks to research what

they have given me to investigate what they have given me and to get back to them at

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some point in a meeting and share that with them. But I needed to know for instance

that phone call, did that really happen or not this is what I am hearing. Again he said,

she said. David testified Gowans & Knight Ruth insisted on having an engineer. Well

I just heard a couple of days ago the reason why I wrote it Ms. Day Palmer my office

saying David said to do that. So that is why I wrote that down its like he said she said

here we go again. So give me some time let me investigate this with the help of the

Town Attorney will investigate this and really at the end of the day what I was

looking for is a productive meeting with myself and zoning. What was happening the

underlying events of the time were they wanted to have a performance evaluation of

Ruth Mulcahy and I know that the evaluation of Ruth Mulcahy is not within their

authority that is not within their scope of authority or their purview. Rather than sit

there and argue I thought we would have a discussion why is that. That is why I was

looking for two weeks.

Attorney Summa you left the meeting with the agreement that they give you two

weeks and at that point you would come back sit with the zoning board and try to

resolve some of these issues.

Charles Frigon that is correct.

Attorney Summa referring you to exhibit #14 could you tell me what this is and how

it came to your attention?

Charles Frigon this is an email from David Minnich to Ruth Mulcahy sent on

Thursday, January 5th

Attorney Summa which is two days after your meeting when they agreed to give you

two weeks.

Attorney Summa what does the email say.

Charles Frigon you requested to be emailed on this matter. This meeting of the

commission is an executive session to discuss your evaluation. I do not know at this

time the meeting room.

Attorney Summa he has it scheduled for January 11th

Charles Frigon for January 11th

correct.

Attorney Summa was one of the underlying themes in your discussion earlier about

whose role it is to evaluate and try to clarify that also.

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Charles Frigon one of my underlying themes yes had I shared that at this point

maybe in a conversation maybe not. Yes absolutely that is what I wanted to

accomplish.

Attorney Summa but in the event this email was absolutely contradictory to what

you believed you had agreed to.

Charles Frigon yes

Attorney Summa and it is two days later. Referring you to exhibit #15, can you

identify this for me?

Charles Frigon at that meeting of January 3rd

I had asked again me being the

mediator, this by the way this is not the first time I have asked this. That if there is

any controversy or assistance that Mr. Minnich needed with regard to the

management of that office and it wasn’t forth coming let me know. That is what I

need to know, I can’t investigate, I can’t determine, I can’t judge unless I know

what’s going on. So share with me what’s going on. So the very following day on the

I did speak with Mr. Minnich twice and in both instances I ran into he said, she

said, it was incredibly frustrating. Mr. Minnich was calling me up and he would say

that Ruth won’t do something because of budgets or won’t return my phone calls. I

would call Ruth and she would say yes I will and I will get back to him as soon as I

have the information I don’t have it it’s not necessary. This happened in both

instances it was a he said, she said, and I felt that I was caught in the middle of

something. So that email was sent out to bring clarity to the whole process. Okay I

understand you got a problem I understand that problem is not being worked out.

Attorney Suma but basically it was directed to both of them.

Charles Frigon what I was directing is: In response to recent requests made of me to

assist with productive communications to and from the Planning & Zoning Office and

in consideration of protecting integrity and factualness of communications, I am

asking members of the Planning & Zoning Commission and Department staff to

communicate non-urgent communications via email copying me on all

correspondence.

Attorney Summa you wanted everything in writing.

Charles Frigon put it in writing so there is no more he said, she said. I needed

understanding.

Attorney Summa referring you now to exhibit # 16. With this meeting that was

going to be set for January 11, 2012 you had had some conversation with Mr.

Minnich.

Charles Frigon that is correct

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Attorney Summa and what did he relate to.

Charles Frigon what he related to me was I believe was accurately expressed in my

memo back to him and the rest of the commission. If I am to understand correctly,

you are asking that you, Gary Martin, Paul Jessell and I meet prior to the Special

Meeting scheduled for this Thursday, January 12, 2012. If you will recall, I had asked

and you had agreed to allow me two weeks to collect my thoughts by both

investigating and evaluating to better understanding the issues as you and Gary

presented them to Paul and I in our meeting Tuesday January 3, 3012. Subsequently,

you have stated to me that the Commission on Wednesday, January 4, 2012 expressed

a strong and collective desire those were his words to meet and evaluate prior to the

two weeks as agreed. With that action taken, I abandoned my effort and will not be

prepared to meet with you prior to Thursday’s meeting. I am sorry that could not

have convinced the Commission to respect our agreement, as I believe our evaluation

process would have been more productive.

Attorney Summa pursuant to the directions that you gave Ruth and him did you send

this to all commission members.

Attorney Summa can you tell us what their response was to that email.

Charles Frigon I don’t know all of them I do have a few here and they were as

confused as anyone at the email. They were not aware that there was a meeting on the

. They were not aware that the Chairman or the Vice Chairman met with the Town

Attorney and myself. They were not aware of what had been said and they were not

aware of a meeting sooner than later and it is right here all in the emails.

Attorney Summa so basically the (inaudible) came back we never met we never

even discussed this.

Charles Frigon correct.

Attorney Summa referring you next to exhibit #17.

Charles Frigon again this looks like a series of emails one initiated by Ruth Mulcahy

to Dave Minnich on January 6th

this one reads: Chuck Berger and I have reviewed the

final plans for 1300 Main Street and 51 Straits Turnpike and have found it complete.

The expiration date is printed on the plan with the conditions of approval and a

signature block. The plan title has been revised and the lot line revision is clearly

shown on the plan as conditioned. There is a label indicating that the fence will be

installed around the generator. The two paper copies and the Mylar copy are on the

conference table in the Land use Office for signing with a signature pen. George

would also like to know when you or Carl would be able to sign the maps so he can

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install his generator as soon as possible. Please email me or Carol when you or Carl

would be able to sign the maps.

Attorney Summa now this is the day after you had instructed all of them

communications by email only.

Charles Frigon it appears that way.

Attorney Summa what was Mr. Minnich’s response to them.

Charles Frigon Mr. Minnich responded that: I will sign the Mylar on Monday. He

went on to say that: In the future you are instructed to telephone me at my cell phone

when a Mylar is ready for signing. I could have signed this Mylar on Friday

(yesterday) if you or staff had called me. Calling me has been the practice of notifying

me a Mylar is read for signing. I have inquired when the Mylar was delivered by the

applicant for signing. It was much earlier than the time of your email to me. Why did

you wait until the end of your business day (4pm) to notifying me the Mylar was ready

for signing? Also please inform me by telephone on Monday about the status of all

issues in the emails we exchanged several days ago and the 51 minute telephone

conversation we had following the emails abut the two outdoor lighting enforcements

and the answer to the septic question posed by Commissioner Rossi that is also part

of the emails.

Attorney Summa again what are the problems with this email.

Charles Frigon again we are involved in enforcement and again I had just asked

them to please email each other so we had a good record of what communications

were taking place and again Mr. Minnich is saying no I understand that’s what the

Manager said but I am telling you different.

Attorney Summa then there is a response from Ruth where she refuted a lot of the

things said and without getting into that could you just read the last paragraph of her

email.

Charles Frigon the past practice of telephoning the Chairman has not been

transparent or productive for the public or the applicant. The tone and information in

these exchanges with David Minnich have been hostile and unpleasant towards me. I

am attempting to stop this hostile work environment by exchanging information by

email. Thank you for respecting this process. Ruth

Attorney Summa she wants it by email for these reasons you directed both of them

to communicate by email.

Attorney Summa referring to the next exhibit #18 can you tell me what that is?

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Charles Frigon it looks like it is a series of emails from Ruth Mulcahy to Dave

Minnich sent on January the 11th

Attorney Summa again she is stating that emails so there is no misunderstanding

consistent with your request.

Attorney Summa then the second paragraph could you read that.

Charles Frigon the second paragraph on hers: it says I received your message from

Moosa yesterday that you no longer want me to pursue enforcement against Mr.

Shappy for the light on the building at the corner of Porter and Echo Lake Road.

Attorney Summa again enforcement issues.

Charles Frigon again enforcement issues.

Attorney Summa going to Mr. Minnich’s response.

Charles Frigon Mr. Minnich responded beginning with: I am asking you to stop

emailing Commission members what I request of you. In many circumstances these

emails to all members become an illegal meeting. Particularly when Commission

members have communications about them to each other. I am spending an excessive

amount of time receiving phone calls or emails about the subject matter of the email.

This is a new procedure you recently put into place. It clearly is not working well.

Please stop this practice. You are not expected to document for all of the commission

what conversations you have with them. Members do not need to know what questions

or comments other members have spoken to you or staff about. Those conversations

are private. If they want to share the conversations with other members, they are

welcome to do so at a meeting. If you want to document the communications for your

purposes then do so. That is up to you.

Attorney Summa so basically, he is again directing her to do something different

than what you directed.

Charles Frigon that is correct. I will note that, that is exactly why all of this is

handled in a commission meeting and not the way it’s being handled here. He’s right

you don’t do that.

Attorney Summa what did you decide to do next to try to bring this situation to some

kind of resolution.

Charles Frigon really what I had intended to do from the very beginning of the

January 12th

meeting was in part going to accomplish but this was a week later if I

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had some more time to prepare it. What we did and I say we I had asked both our

Town Attorney and Labor Attorney to work with me and to document and summarize

our roles in relationship with respect to each other, our individual roles managing and

administrating the Planning & Zoning Office and the Planning & Zoning

professionals. I thought this was extremely important because remember going back

to January 3rd

, December 7th

they emailed exchanges going back and forth and again I

am expected to hear about regulations and I am expected to hear about the Plan of

Development and I am never expected to hear about what I hearing about. I thought it

was in all of our best interest that I get this resolved. So what we did is we prepared a

5 page summary that summarizes…

Attorney Summa this is exhibit #19

Charles Frigon we met with Planning & Zoning Commission to go through this.

What I was looking for is for this document, this summary to be the basis for some

substantive conversation of understanding between myself, our Labor Attorney our

Town Attorney and the Planning & Zoning Commission. This was to be the basis for

conversation, let’s go through it, let’s understand it, if we agree with fine, if we don’t

agree with it, why not. Whatever questions were going to be had were going to be had

at this meeting. It is all spelled pretty clearly.

Attorney Summa and did you have Attorney Jessell also include all the backup

documentation.

Attorney Summa now looking at exhibit #19 could you share item A where it talks

about the Zoning Commission Duties Generally?

Charles Frigon Item A. Zoning Commission Duties Generally

1. Regulate buildings, structures, uses, etc. 2. Adopt, change, repeal zoning

regulations 3. Establish zoning districts and maps 4. Act on petitions for zone

changes 5. Act on Site Plan and Special Permit applications 6. Provide for the

enforcement of zoning regulations

Attorney Summa specifically go down to D where it is laid out the Responsibilities

of Commission Chairman.

Charles Frigon the D. Responsibilities of the Commission Chairman are

1. Call Meetings 2. Set Agenda 3. Run Meetings 4. Signs final maps, etc., once voted

by Commission

Attorney Summa so it was clear in this document that the responsibility of setting

the agenda was with the Chairman of the Commission.

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Attorney Summa and it is his responsibility to run the meeting.

Attorney Summa and those are the responsibilities you leave to him on the

commission.

Attorney Summa then referring you to H. the Summary could you read those for

Charles Frigon H. Summary

1. Statutory grant of power is to Commission as a whole 2. Commission should

always conduct its business at a properly called meeting. 3. Direction to Land Use

Administrator should be given only during properly called meeting of commission. 4.

No individual commission member should undertake to direct the administrative

function of the Land Use Office except in an emergency. 5. Performance concerns of

zoning Enforcement Officer or Assistant Zoning Enforcement Officer should be

reported to the Town Manager pursuant to 36-2 and. if number 3 above is followed,

shortfall in performance will be apparent on the record and documented.

Attorney Summa this is made pretty clear by the Town Attorney that the direction of

the Land Use Officer was only to come to the meetings and no individual

commissioner should attempt to direct the office and that the performance is done by

the Town Manager.

Attorney Summa and again your intent was that this document was laid out and also

formed the basis of what was for discussion and what transpired when you went to

the meeting on the 19th

Charles Frigon again we had two attorneys and myself and the entire commission I

believe was in attendance. (Exhibit #20) Under New Business discussion with the

Town Manager concerning the relationship between the Planning & Zoning

Commission and the Town Administration and I had pointed out exactly has I had

earlier in my testimony that I asked for this opportunity to discuss with the Planning

& Zoning Commission our relationship and our roles as they relate to the

management of the Land Use Office and then it goes on to say exactly what I

expected.

Attorney Summa and then what occurred.

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Charles Frigon we passed out the document, there was some objection as to the size

of the document and how they would be excepted to read that document in one

evening and I did point out that I thought it was just a few pages large print that I

thought we could read it. The rest of it was just documentation should we need it. So

they did very respectfully take the time and read the summary.

Attorney Summa and then what occurred.

Charles Frigon they agreed with it.

Attorney Summa did they ask any questions?

Charles Frigon no

Attorney Summa how did you feel that you were treated?

Charles Frigon very disrespectfully, this has been an on going issue for a lot of

years, I think a lot longer than 2006 perhaps. It costs us a lot of money and I

personally was more disappointed this was something that I wanted to resolve. Let’s

put this behind us let’s get this reopened and let’s understand what our roles and

responsibilities are so we never have another occurrence of the December 7th

meeting

ever again in the public in front of our applicants..

Attorney Summa besides the rude treatment, Mr. Minnich did indicate they

understood and agreed with it.

Charles Frigon his words were what I briefly reviewed I certainly understand it to be

the case as well, I don’t have anything else.

Attorney Summa referring to exhibit #21 this again is the very next day after the

meeting when you presented…

Charles Frigon yes this is on January 20th

Attorney Summa and made it very clear that the evaluation process was for the

Town Manager and not etc and what does the email say.

Charles Frigon if you don’t mind I am going back for a second and just to let you

know I was excited about the comments, In the beginning I was very disappointed, I

was like let’s talk about this, let’s get it out in the open, let have some discussion. But

then I thought a second about it and I said this is great we all agree. That is what we

came here for, we all now agree. What a great starting point that was. The following

day I get a text message and it says Chuck, Is there a date and time next week for

Ruth’s evaluation with you and P & Z? I responded to him: Hi Dave, As agreed

Thursday 01-19-12 yesterday the commission has no authority to evaluate Ruth. The

mechanism is to provide me with minutes of any meeting that you or any

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commissioner believe notable with written comment and I will investigate and duly

note in her annual performance evaluation if not before.

Attorney Summa so the next day apparently he did not understand.

Charles Frigon no

Charles Frigon again it looks like a series of emails with one initiated by Dave to

Ruth Mulcahy dated January 30th

Attorney Summa what is the nature of it.

Charles Frigon the nature of it I will read it, it is very short. Please prepare for my

review motions of approval for the following articles on the Feb 1st agenda: 12a, 12b,

12c, 12d, and 12e. These draft motions are to be sent to me by email not later than

the close of business on Tuesday January 31st.

Attorney Summa this email obviously isn’t from a meeting correct.

Charles Frigon obviously not.

Attorney Summa going to the next response from Ruth to Dave.

Charles Frigon the response from Ruth was January 31st.

Attorney Summa without getting into the specifics she talks to each of his points

what was ready and what wasn’t ready.

Charles Frigon in some instances they are ready for a motion and some instances

they were not, so she couldn’t provide him with all of the information they wanted.

Attorney Summa had Ruth expressed to you any concerns about the drafting of these

motions generally.

Charles Frigon generally, yes I would say 2 or 3 times over the past year.

Attorney Summa and what is the nature of this discussion.

Charles Frigon the nature of her concern was predetermination. It had always

bothered her, the same as when I opened up testimony this evening that she would be

asked to write draft motions on meetings that have not been completed yet.

Predetermination, folks is not a good thing. That is considered wrong it is not a

healthy thing. The applicant needs to hear from the Planning & Zoning Commission

some substantive conversation as to their application they need to know that it was

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heard that it was understood and that it is being discussed, that is what the applicant

needs to hear. Not come right out of it and come up with a motion a draft motion. We

would also make the comment that some of these motions that she wrote were

changed. They are not necessarily her motions they look like her motions they are

being submitted as her motions but they were changed. She was never very

appreciative of that, it upset her.

Attorney Summa did she also raise issues with respect to David’s involvement with

the agendas.

Charles Frigon she did that very early on back in 2007.

Charles Frigon this appears to be the minutes of a Wednesday, March 7th

, Planning

& Zoning regular meeting.

Attorney Summa this is the leading testimony last night about the wall.

Charles Frigon that is correct, yes.

Attorney Summa and not rehashing that again getting into the wall again but from

the personnel perspective from the employee perspective what was upsetting to you

about this meeting?

Charles Frigon unfortunately it carried a little bit further than that. There was a

much larger perspective here and this goes back again to the very beginning are we or

are we not open for business. Folks we, you, the nine of you as Town Council,

myself, Frank Nardelli we run a 64 million dollar annual business and that is a big

responsibility and it is a lot of work. We want business, we have invested in an

Economic Development Coordinator, we have an Economic Development

Commission that is working harder now than I have seen them work in probably the

last 15 years they are doing a wonderful job. We have another layer and that is the

Town Council, Business Development Subcommittee so clearly we trying to attract

business. We are presently according to our last rating at about 12% of business

commercial in town. Sixty four million dollars with about 12% business commercial

we need to up that, we need to interest people in the Town of Watertown. When I

read something like this it upsets me a great deal. Were people treated badly yeah

they truly were. We pay our staff very good money they get good benefits they

certainly have a lot of our respect and from all that I know they do a great job. When

our staff says that they discussed this and that it is acceptable and its actually better

than what was originally suggested and our Town Engineer has looked it and

unfortunately he didn’t get to write a report on that but oh by the way we have a cut

sheet from the engineers and it demonstrators that to some degree and we know that a

condition of approval for this is that a geotechnical engineer will inspect it as it is

being built and will approve it at the end of all of this. You know what we do in my

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book and I am not a zoning person we condition the approval we say thank you very

much for your 5 or 8 million dollars we understand we saw the wall fall down in Stop

& Shop we understand from commissioners on the commission that it is a better wall

you got 3 different dealerships in town, thank you very much. You will recall in our

last budget that we had put money aside for CERC. I wasn’t at all sure why we were

putting money together for CERC. I wanted to understand better as I am very

analytical that way I need to kick the tires I need to get it. So I took a trip with Mr.

McGrail, Chairman of the Economic Development Commission and Joe Seacrist our

Economic Development Coordinator and went up to CERC and they have a beautiful

facility, absolutely gorgeous facility. We sit there at the counter and we look at the

big screen and we can stroll around and we could do whatever we want and we can

say if we make water bottles how many people can we attract to Watertown and they

are showing us their services. They are giving some quotes for different levels of

service. I say to him why and they look at me why what, why would we pay you 10,

12, $18,000 to sell Watertown. We have location, location, location we have Route 8,

we have Route 84, we have utilities, we have natural gas, we have water, we have

sewer, we have electrical substations that supply just about any development that we

have in this town, we have a Fire Department, a Police Department that are second to

none, we have those services; why in god’s name would we pay you to sell

Watertown. Why isn’t it selling itself why doesn’t Watertown just sell itself I don’t

get it and those were my exact words to them? I will never forget the answer they

looked at me and they said you have a reputation, and I said we have a reputation and

they said yes. I said please share that with me and they did that by example and I

don’t remember the exact numbers. They said if a realtor has a client coming into

their office and they want to build a 60,000 square foot facility with 24 foot ceilings

and they want x, y and z to support it, what do you got for us guys. Guess what they

are not going to go to Watertown because you have a reputation it is going to take

more than 8 months and they got to relocate in 8 months they are not going to go

there. You have the reputation of taking longer than 8 months true or not I am not

here to judge I am here to investigate and this is what I hear and I am telling you that

hurt. Because I want to sell property in this town commercially and we are not going

to sell it if we have a reputation and that is what we are here to work on. We need to

fix that we need to make it right instead we pay $10,000. That is what I read in this,

condition the approval, its okay; we conditioned a lot of approvals. I asked this

question and I was told we don’t condition approvals. I go back in the minutes and I

look and I see we condition approvals; we conditioned an approval for Corey Shaker,

why not do second conditioned approvals. I didn’t get it; to this day I don’t get it yeah

people we treated very poorly, people were cut off in conversation. My job is that 64

million dollars, my job is selling quality of life in Watertown; my job is protecting

our tax base that’s what I do. I can’t do that, I really can’t do that if we are going to

have conversations in front of our applicants about bound state statutes, conference

room tables and software. That is not going to happen, I get where the reputation

comes from.

Attorney Summa referring you to the exhibit #24 can you identify this for us please?

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Charles Frigon this is actually a note to file from Roy Cavanaugh that he shared with

me. The first paragraph is: Chairman Minnich was badgering and belittling Ruth

Mulcahy, Zoning Enforcement Officer. Specifically he would not accept her statement

that she had spoken to Charles Berger, Town Engineer and that Mr. Berger had

stated that he had no problem with proposed retaining wall submittal. He repeatedly

berated her for not complying with his directive or expectations. Very uncomfortable

to witness.

Attorney Summa just the start of the 2nd

paragraph.

Charles Frigon I felt personally and professionally embarrassed at the way

Chairman Minnich treated Mr. Corey Shaker and summarily dismissed his request

for wall approval and denied attempts by Mr. Pope and Markiewicz to keep the

project moving. It appeared that he was simply being obstructionist.

Attorney Summa and then if you go to item #8, 9, 10 & 11.

Charles Frigon 8. At one point during the Shaker conversation I was questioning his

mental competence. 9. My opinion was that Chairman Minnich was abusing his

powers as the Chair and that he was clearly exceeding the boundaries that had been

set with the entire Commission at a pervious meeting with the Town Manager and

Town Attorney. 10. I recommended to the Town Manager on this date that all

Planning & Zoning Subcommittee meetings be tape recorded and accurate meeting

transcripts be produced. 11. I further recommended to the Town Manager that a

Town Attorney be seated next to Mr. Minnich at all meetings to protect the town and

the public from his increasingly irresponsible and erratic behavior if he continues in

his current capacity.

Attorney Summa the next is exhibit #25 what this is, is a complaint by Chuck Bezio

about Mr. Minnich.

Charles Frigon in my life there is always a little bit of a story, Chuck Bezio called

me at the office and Chuck Bezio was clearly upset and he wanted share with me

what had happened in a conversation with Chairman Minnich. Again it was not one

of my finer days and I said I had enough; you work for someone else you work for

Ruth Mulcahy. I am not taking your complaint; I am not listening to it on the phone.

If it is a complaint that you believe in reduce it to writing give it to your supervisor

and I will take up with her.

Attorney Summa he in fact did that.

Charles Frigon that is exactly right.

Attorney Summa let me go back to exhibit #19 for one second if you could, referring

you to the summary on Section H referring you to specifically items 3 & 4.

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Charles Frigon 3. Direction to the Land Use Administrator should be given only

during properly called meeting of Commission. 4. No individual Commission member

should undertake to direct the administrative function of the Land use Office except in

an emergency.

Attorney Summa and that was what Mr. Minnich clearly agreed to on January 19th

Charles Frigon the commission did.

Attorney Summa and obviously it was not being done with respect to chastising ..

Charles Frigon right, sure.

Attorney Summa it may be a good time to take a 10 minutes break, I maybe have

another 20 minutes with this witness on a slightly different topic.

Raymond Primini we will reconvene at 20 minutes to 9.

Attorney Summa very good thank you.

Raymond Primini we will bring this meeting back to order. Everyone please take

your seats. I am asking if 10:30 would be a good cut off time.

Attorney Summa yes 10:30 is fine with me.

Attorney McSherry I was going to suggest to Attorney Summa that we come back

next Tuesday so we can do our case next Tuesday.

Attorney Summa and that would probably work.

Raymond Primini okay

Attorney Summa and I have no objections.

Attorney Summa if I could raise one other issue because I think we should get it

clarified. Council Vice Chair, Mary Ann Rosa asked during the break is it appropriate

for the council to ask questions of the witness. You could check with your attorney

but it is and I encourage you to do that through the Chair. When I finish with my

witness if you have any questions in your mind you are the ones that have to make

this decision, so I think it’s important through the Chair that you ask the witness those

questions. I am sure that Kevin feels the same way about his witnesses.

Attorney McSherry I fell the same way but I would ask that Attorney Jessell to

provide advise and I would agree with Attorney Summa’s statement and I certainly

have no objections but I think Attorney Jessell should advise you.

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Attorney Jessell what he is saying is absolutely appropriate.

Mary Ann Rosa thank you very much.

Attorney Summa just wanted to get it out there.

Attorney Jessell I would just like to ask one other thing, I think that is would be

appropriate for the council to ask their questions after both attorneys have finished

their end.

Attorney Summa that is fine. Chuck in early April you took a vacation.

Attorney Summa can you relate to the council what transpired while you were on

vacation and what came to your attention and how it came to your attention.

Charles Frigon sometime over the weekend while I was away I understood that there

was a complaint that had been filed by Corey Shaker a formal complaint. I went onto

my e-mail I read the complaint and I understood the complaint and my intention at

the time was to deal with the complaint when I got back I did go back to the town

charter and I do carry a copy with me when on vacation and I read the section and I

realized there would be a time element involved and that there really was no

restriction on the time and that I could deal with it when I ca

me back.

Attorney Summa and then what was the next news that you got while you were on

vacation.

Charles Frigon the next news was the following day I got a very unusual call from

Frank Nardelli our Assistant Town Manager/Acting Town Manager at the time. He

told me that there was an issue in the Planning & Zoning Office, that there was an

argument with one of the commissioners of Planning & Zoning and Ruth Mulcahy

involvement by Roy Cavanaugh.

Attorney Summa did he also inform you that there was a police investigation in the

matter?

Charles Frigon yes he did, he said that the police were called and that there was a

complaint filed and it was being investigated.

Attorney Summa the next bit of good news you got while you were on vacation.

Charles Frigon the following weekend, I don’t remember if it was Friday night,

Saturday, Sunday I really don’t recall I was informed again that there was a Special

Meeting of the Planning & Zoning Commission called and two agenda items on there

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that dealt with both the Corey Shaker complaint and the police complaint that was

filed on the record, the argument down at Planning & Zoning.

Attorney Summa and that these items were going be discussed at the April 18th

meeting.

Charles Frigon yes, these items were going to be discussed at the April 18th

meeting.

Attorney Summa what did you then do.

Charles Frigon I was very concerned again and I am certainly not a lawyer. Having

it on the agenda a formal complaint and having an opportunity to discuss that formal

complaint publicly compromises the entire investigatory process. That should not

happen; the complaint should be investigated by charter, by myself and our Town

Attorney or his designee. It should not be discussed publicly, tried publicly and

frankly I saw a lot of liability for the Town doing exactly that. Also when I saw on

there was a second item on the agenda was to be discussed that was a police

investigation again don’t compromise, it is not something that we do there is a system

in place the police will handle it. This is not something that we talk about in open

session at a Planning & Zoning meeting.

Attorney Summa where also the Freedom of Information issues were…

Charles Frigon absolutely with respect to the second complaint and dealing with

town staff they have to be properly notified by FOI. Again the case is still open you

can’t be discussing it publicly. So I wrote a letter and I forwarded that letter off via

email to Lisa Cattaneo in my office and asked her to have it sent out to I believe all of

you and to the …

Attorney Summa could I refer you to exhibit #28 and I believe it reflects it went to

all the Planning & Zoning Commission members and to Ray Primini. How did you

instruct your office to have this letter delivered to these people?

Charles Frigon my instructions were as I recall that the letter should be emailed out

immediately, this should go regular mail and it should go out hand delivered. I

wanted to make sure because of the timeliness of this that it was received on time.

Attorney Summa and so the letter went out on Tuesday morning the 17th

, could you

read that letter for us?

Charles Frigon

As you are aware, I am on vacation out of state. I t has been brought to my attention

however that you have called a special meeting of your commission to discuss two

agenda items – the letter from Mr. Shaker and the incident regarding Mr. Mancini

and town employees.

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I want you to know that I am absolutely opposed to your having a public meeting on

these topics. As you are aware, Mr. Shaker has also filed a formal complaint against

you regarding the matters mentioned in the letter. Upon my return I plan to

investigate the whole matter as is required by the Town Charter. Having a public

discussion on this matter at this time is both inappropriate and could potentially

expose the Town to further liability.

The other item on the agenda is even more problematic. As I understand it this topic

would involve not only a matter that is currently under criminal investigation but also

a discussion of the actions or employees of various employees. As I have clearly

communicated to you, this is not within your purview. I am also not aware that you

have complied with the Freedom of Information Act requirements to engage in such

discussion.

Calling this meeting under these circumstances demonstrates extremely poor

judgment that could expose both individual commission members and the Town of

Watertown to significant liability. I therefore, in the strongest possible terms am

urging you to cancel this meeting.

Attorney Summa you clearly communicated your intention there.

Charles Frigon I thought so

Attorney Summa what transpired next?

Charles Frigon I received a phone call from Mr. Minnich and Mr. Minnich

expressed some concern over my letter and had shared with me that he had hoped I

would have contacted him before I wrote the letter and that his intention was not to

discuss any significance with the police complaint with Mr. Mancini. But his

intention was to simply invite me to a future meeting of the Planning & Zoning

Commission. I responded to that obviously I did not know that I wish I had known

that but I feel still the same way and only because I shared with Mr. Minnich that I

am not sure he would have the control over what conversations would be held once

that item was open for discussion. So again I questioned him I would still urge you

not to have either of those agenda items.

Attorney Summa did you express a concern that if the discussion on the Mancini

incident talked about the performance of employees or the involvement of employees

that he had followed FOI.

Charles Frigon no, I did that in the letter my comments to him verbally was simply

that I didn’t know that he would have the control over the conversation once it was

open on the floor for discussion.

Attorney Summa when you ended that conversation was it clear in your mind that

you had communicated your opposition to this.

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Charles Frigon yes, I think so and I certainly understood his concern, but yeah I

think so if not my letter certainly did.

Attorney Summa you went to great lengths to communicate that letter to everybody.

Charles Frigon well I did yeah.

Attorney Summa referring you to exhibit #29 please, can you identify that for us?

Charles Frigon these appear to be the minutes of the special meeting of April 18th

Attorney Summa did in fact Mr. Minnich honor your request not to discuss these

items.

Charles Frigon no, they remained on the agenda and were discussed.

Attorney Summa did other board members attempt to get him not to discuss these

items.

Charles Frigon yes they did. They read into the record my letter.

Attorney Summa referring you to page 3 near the bottom where David Minnich is

quoted. Can you look at that and tell us what your problems and concerns with that

Charles Frigon again my investigation in reading these minutes I am reading that:

the motion to table is debatable. Let me say I spoke with the Town Manager over the

telephone subsequent to this letter which he had not communicated the first time I

saw that was when you did too with the e-mail and in discussing that with the item #2

that is on the agenda which is B. Knowing the intent of what was to be accomplished

with that, which also you will hear this evening he did not have the concern that he

had, if he had called we would have spoken and he would not have the discomfort

level that apparently he had when he decided that he was going to write that without

knowledge of what it was about. He then goes on to say, and I am going to stop right

there for a second I would say that is pretty accurate I don’t have an issue with it we

did discuss that as I just testified to. But what we were not discussing or what was not

explained to the commission is that we still have the whole Corey Shaker complaint

letter should that or should that not be discussed. I talked about that in my letter I

didn’t talk to him on the phone about it, In reading this I felt somewhat betrayed in

that why didn’t you share the whole conversation or more importantly why don’t you

just stick by the letter. This is an open investigation there is some liability here. My

job is to protect you and the taxpayer from that kind of liability. That is what I am

trying to do.

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Attorney Summa did you feel that Mr. Minnich had accurately portrayed your

position that you were still opposed to these items.

Charles Frigon from what I am reading here, no. It goes on to say which really upset

me. It says: it is not intended to be specific unless the members want to with regards

to anything further than that. I didn’t think we might not have no control and now I m

hearing if want to discuss unless you do we will. That is what I am reading.

Attorney Summa so now he didn’t take your concerns in consideration he escalated

in the other direction.

Charles Frigon yes

Attorney Summa referring to exhibit #30 this is another memo from Roy Cavanaugh

with respect to the wall incident on May 7th

Attorney Summa can you just briefly explain what it says.

Charles Frigon very briefly Mr. Cavanaugh was answering a question close to

Chuck Berger regarding the Shaker wall and what Mr. Cavanaugh was saying is that:

the proposed retaining wall shall be certified by a geotechnical engineer and

approved by the Town Engineer. The retaining wall shall be the same material used

for the retaining wall constructed by Stop & Shop. It is our understanding that

Shaker’s has proposed a similar wall with greater structural stability, given the

documented history of failures at the Stop & Shop site. Just to cut right to the chase he

says based on the differences of other walls and the Shaker language, the Shaker wall

does not require review and approval prior to construction by the engineer (inaudible)

Attorney Summa he is confirming that the wall the approval was not necessary.

Attorney Summa referring to exhibit #31, this is another memo from Roy

Cavanaugh can you share this.

Charles Frigon this a follow up letter and he talks here that he would once again: like

to protest the conduct of Mr. David Minnich Planning & Zoning Commission

Chairman. This afternoon at 12:48 p.m. he contacted Charles Berger, P.E. directly

via email requesting “Please review modification #3.” As a professional courtesy and

out of respect for the role of the Planning & Zoning Commission, this office did the

necessary research and responded. That is what precisely what I testified to earlier

we asked them to do it and not to be argumentive. He does go on to say that: Mr.

Minnich has been repeatedly requested and directed not to contact staff members

directly and to work in accordance with established protocols and Standard

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Operating Procedures of the town and the charter. This means requests for assistance

should be transmitted to either the Town Manager or your designee or the

appropriate Department Head for disposition. His repeated disregard of this simple

courtesy is disruptive to the operations of the Engineering Division of the Department

of Public Works and is detrimental to the Director of Public Works” responsibilities

as outlined in the Town Charter to “organize the work of the department in such a

manner as he shall deem most economical and efficient”. It is also causing undue

stress upon the staff members as they are torn between performing their assigned

duties and complying with Mr. Minnich’s directives. If you remember I testified to

this a number of times in my testimony this evening it is an on going thing. Do I

believe it was resolved, yes and then it crops up again?

Attorney Summa and again this interaction is directly contrary to the directives on

January 19th.

Charles Frigon yes it is.

Attorney Summa can you relate to the Town Council the issue or problems you had

with Mr. Minnich in regards to executive sessions.

Charles Frigon executive sessions go way back My first discussion with Mr.

Minnich regarding executive sessions was back in 2007 it was bundled with some

other conversation and my comment then was for Mr. Minnich to use more discretion

when it came to executive session. My concern was and again not first hand but only

from what hearing that there was perhaps conversation going on in executive session

that was not appropriate to what the agenda called for and the other concern was that

there was staff being invited into the meeting on a normal basis. So that has been

going on for a number of years now.

Attorney Suma did you instruct the Land Use Office that staff should not be going in

on a regular basis into executive session.

Attorney Summa referring to May 2nd

minutes exhibit #32, referring you to page 4

and Ruth Mulcahy starts a conversation.

Charles Frigon yes she does.

Attorney Summa actually let me go back a little further because Mr. Minnich starts

by talking about the Freedom of Information complaint about the secretary going into

executive session.

Charles Frigon that is correct this is under the Chairman’s report Mr. Minnich says

that: I just had one item and that is to report that I received an e-mail since our last

meeting from David LeBlanc, he has a, it was not yet an FOI complaint, I guess it

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was better termed an FOI inquiry. In his observation in reading the minutes why our

staff attends executive sessions. I knew the answer, the legal answer but I double

checked in case something has changed since we last had this inquiry. I spoke with

Tom Hennick: he is a public information officer for the FOI commission. He said

what I understood to be the case is that it is up to the commission to invite people into

executive sessions and it is at the discretion of the commission to do so. Those that

attend those sessions that are invited don’t have to speak but the only issue to which

the invitation is restricted is if it is someone who is just there to observe.

Attorney Summa and then on the next page Ruth Mulcahy comments.

Charles Frigon Ruth commented: we have been instructed by the Town Manager’s

office that no recording secretary is supposed to be in the executive session, so we did

receive that and I did inform everybody all of the secretaries are not suppose to be in

the executive session as recording secretary.

Attorney Summa and than what occurred.

Charles Frigon Mr. Minnich then went on to explain: I am surprised that you have

not spoken to me about that because invitations to commission meetings are that of

the commission and not of anyone else. Let me be clear as to why in this particular

commission it is necessary as I did talk to Dave about it, I did not want to prolong

this. But it is at times necessary and appropriate to invite the staff to come. The staff

that is here in these meetings is also staff what works full time during the day for

Public Works or for the Planning & Zoning Commission. There are functions to

which those people do particularly as you are mentioning Carol, to which is putting

in notices in the paper, making sure the notices are proper, and filing with the Town

Clerk. This is not an esoteric discussion, in that this issue was of notice is the heart of

the legal case to which is now waiting for a judge to decide on the Business Medical

Zone, that we have established.

Attorney Summa and again the next page.

Charles Frigon Ruth Mulcahy: I was told by Lisa Cattaneo a couple of months ago

that we should be careful of executive sessions and that no recording secretary

should be present at the meeting, again it was reiterated to me after Mr. LeBlanc

apparently contracted the Town Manager’s office as well and I was told again at the

Town Manager’s office that I should remind the secretaries that they should not go

into executive session.

Attorney Summa then Mr. Minnich says: it is obviously a communication issue

coming from your office.

Charles Frigon yes.

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Attorney Summa why did this bother you with respect to the Freedom of

Information do you believe what Mr. Minnich said was correct.

Charles Frigon it bothered me. It’s not like I know everything maybe I have

something to learn. It bothered me because I have been telling him for a number of

years this practice should not happen. Reading these minutes clearly is not keeping

with how I understand the FOI law.

Attorney Summa so what did you do to clarify it in your mind.

Charles Frigon I wrote an e-mail to Tom Hennick of the Freedom of Information

office. I explained to him, Dave in executive session held on April 18th

, I wrote to

Tom Hennick and I said it has been brought to my attention that our Planning &

Zoning Commission has been regularly and routinely inviting clerical staff into

executive session. Having thought I understood this practice was not complying with

FOI I ordered the practice to stop. The Chair of the commission subsequently spoke

with you via telephone and asked for clarification. I have asked Lisa Cattaneo to

forward you a copy of the meeting minutes under separate cover that accurately state

your advice and the Chair’s understanding. I am left confused what is the law and the

language with respect to attendants in executive session and is this advice you would

have provided Mr. Minnich. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.

Attorney Summa and did you receive a response.

Charles Frigon I did receive a response.

Attorney Summa and what was that.

Charles Frigon Mr. Hennick wrote to me to confirm my interpretation of 1-231

executive sessions. Only those persons that will be providing testimony should be

allowed in the meeting. Once testimony is given on a particular matter they should

leave the executive session.

Attorney Summa the small point that Mr. Minnich made was correct. If there is an

incident this person had personal information she could come into the meeting.

correct?

Charles Frigon absolutely.

Attorney Summa was it also correct to expand that basically she can come in at any

time they invited her.

Charles Frigon no

Attorney Summa was it your feeling that Mr. Minnich had misrepresented the law to

the rest of the commission.

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Charles Frigon it would appear that way. Mr. Hennick said that was not the advice

that he gave, he read the law and it is being represented in a different way that is what

I am reading here.

Attorney Summa Chuck your role under the charter was to conduct this investigation

and if you found reasonable cause to believe that Mr. Minnich had indeed had

engaged misconduct detrimental to the best interest of the Town to bring this to the

Attorney Summa can you tell the Town Council why you concluded that the

misconduct per your testimony brought here was detrimental to the best interest of the

Charles Frigon summarizing very quickly if you look at the zoning aspects of this,

we have never engaged in that practice in the past. An applicant looking for an

approval for a motor vehicle license has never had to come in for a special permit or a

site plan application or a special permit. I didn’t understand it this was strictly

confusing for me so I did make those phone calls as I testified to and I asked the

experts. Does this happen, they said no it doesn’t, it does not happen. I understood

that Mr. Shaker had some very serious grounds here. Then now reading the minutes I

understood even more clearly why Franklin made those comments, that this did not

require a special site plan application. When I look at the number of attempts that

Ruth made to organize our town so work productively, so we work efficiently, so we

work together it’s just clearly not working. I am spending an awful a lot of time on

complaints and I am spending a lot of time on managing angry employees over

someone’s behavior. I will be the first one to say that let me just jump right to the

chase this shouldn’t be the case, it is not working. I want it to work; I have nothing

against Mr. Minnich. I got this complaint, I didn’t want it. I investigated it as best I

possibly can. I think I did a reasonably competent job. Nothing that I spoke to I

testified tonight isn’t right here in this binder. The two most serious aggressions are

#1 the town not be out for business, we love business. Secondly not living by and

managing by and working by our January 19th

agreement. That agreement makes all

the sense in the world that is the way it is suppose to work. In the real world you work

by the rules (inaudible). Those are our rules, that is our bible it was presented in order

for us to be productive and in order for us to be efficient, in order for us to be

successful, in order for us to take that 12% and raise it to 13 or 14. We have to work

according to the laws and it just seems to me that we just can’t get there. That to me is

not in the best interest of the Town of Watertown.

Attorney Summa I have no further questions.

Attorney McSherry Mr. Frigon you are very familiar obviously by your testimony

on Section 406 of the charter is that correct.

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Attorney McSherry by your testimony in the last few months you spent a lot of time

with that section.

Charles Frigon more than I care to yes.

Attorney McSherry there a very specific process set out in that section that requires

several things to be done for this evening is that correct.

Attorney McSherry and one of the very first things to do is to notify the person who

is the subject matter of the complaint is that correct.

Attorney McSherry now you received that complaint by the date stamped on it April

is that correct.

Attorney McSherry can you tell me when you first sent that complaint to Mr.

Minnich.

Charles Frigon I did not, it was sent by my office remember I was out of the state at

the time and I believe it was sent I don’t have the complaint in front of me, but I

remember saying during my phone call to David who did say to me that he wasn’t

aware that there was a formal complaint. I had instructed my office for that complaint

to be sent to him. I want to say it was maybe the following week.

Attorney McSherry would April 17th

seem like the date.

Charles Frigon yes

Attorney McSherry so Mr. Minnich at the time of your phone call didn’t have actual

knowledge of the complaint.

Charles Frigon Mr. Minnich had received a copy of the complaint on April 11th

same as everyone else. The confusion seems to be was it a formal complaint or not a

formal complaint.

Attorney McSherry what Mr. Minnich received was a copy of Mr. Shaker’s letter

not the complaint that was sent to you.

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Charles Frigon I have no knowledge of what Mr. Minnich received.

Attorney McSherry we may assume that he received a copy of the letter. He had no

knowledge of the complaint, a formal complaint under Section 406; just simply a

letter from Mr. Shaker and his comments in that letter not a formal complaint. You

wrote to him April 17th

2012 regarding a special meeting that was the first time he

found out there was a complaint against him. He had no knowledge that there was an

actual complaint.

Charles Frigon okay

Attorney McSherry hence the agenda for that meeting simply I think it was exhibit

#29 if you look at the minutes of 29th

and I was actually looking for the agenda I am

sorry. I don’t see any agenda for that meeting.

Charles Frigon physically it is in there, but I am pretty familiar with it.

Attorney McSherry in your testimony you were referring to a language for that

particular meeting as referencing the complaint filed by Corey Shaker. The agenda

for that meeting does not contain the word complaint. The agenda just simply refers

to the letter of Corey Shaker. At the time (inaudible) it is simply referring a letter to

solicitors from Mr. Shaker.

Charles Frigon okay yes.

Attorney McSherry so you in response to about that particular portion of the agenda

to Mr. Minnich that’s when you refer to it as a complaint and that’s when Mr.

Minnich gains the first knowledge that it is actually a complaint because he has not

called it that as of yet. So we are coming out of whack with the process for 406.

Charles Frigon I don’t believe we are out of whack at all sir.

Attorney McSherry it seems to me that you are suppose to notify the complaint.

Charles Frigon we did

Attorney McSherry the person who is the subject of the complaint who is the

respondent prior to anything else happening with that.

Charles Frigon did I not?

Attorney McSherry his first notification is by you telling him he has a complaint

against him but he doesn’t have the complaint itself in his hands.

Charles Frigon I don’t know what to tell you. 406 stipulate that I must notify the

respondent of the complaint, which was done on (inaudible).

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Attorney McSherry okay, I don’t want to frustrate you.

Charles Frigon no, I am not frustrating at all I just don’t get your point.

Attorney McSherry now you are testifying pertaining to the process that was

conducted by the Planning & Zoning Commission regarding the Corey Shaker

applications, now it has been my understanding that the site plan & special permit has

been referenced in each one of those agendas that relate to those three permits is that

correct.

Attorney McSherry your testimony referred to Attorney Byrnes discussion of the

2006 applications regarding the Zappone property, the Bradshaw property and there is

one other property.

Charles Frigon on Davis Street.

Attorney McSherry on Davis Street, thank you. On agenda item #4 the commission

is directed by Mr. Masayda how to handle this particular permit.

Charles Frigon I read that in my investigation, yes.

Attorney McSherry it is very clear on what the commission needs to do and then

advised by staff what to do.

Attorney McSherry and working with staff they make up the determination that this

is what they need to do and they proceed in the minutes to follow the staff’s direction

is that correct.

Charles Frigon in the 2006 that is correct.

Attorney McSherry when you fast forward to the 3 applications for Mr. Shaker the

commission does have the luxury of the same advice or memo from staff is that

correct.

Charles Frigon if you would call a luxury okay.

Attorney McSherry strike luxury, they just don’t have the same information from

staff is that correct?

Charles Frigon from staff that is correct. Do they have the same information

absolutely we did it in 2006 there have not been any since. We are doing again in

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2012 the same Chairman is presiding over the meeting and I have much confidence

that Mr. Minnich is very familiar with the regulations in that regard. The application

was there and I don’t have any reason to believe that he wouldn’t know.

Attorney McSherry but what he had in front of him according to the agenda was a

site plan and special permit is that correct.

Charles Frigon that is correct. That is where it was written on the agenda correct.

Attorney McSherry and once it is submitted and accepted as a site plan and special

permit it falls under grouping of other regulations under the zoning regulations of the

Town of Watertown and state statute is that also correct.

Charles Frigon what I considered in my investigation and what is that under. A

motion was made by Mr. Velezis and seconded by Mr. Franson to waive the public

hearing. So in may have been titled the same I don’t have that in front of me but they

certainly made a motion to waive it. In this case that could have been done as well. If

something is placed on the agenda you act on it appropriately and responsibly. You

don’t look at something on the agenda and it says one thing, so those are your

marching orders let’s go let’s do it. It is identified on a number of occasions that there

was no change. I am very confident that Mr. Minnich and the rest of the commission

realize what that means. So at any point, at any time during this application for either

the KIA dealership or the Courtney Dodge dealership we could have waived the

public hearing process once if they didn’t understand, if the agenda item was not

appropriately written that happens it certainly happens. But once we realize it and

being the experts that we say here in one of the documents that we are and again I

have a lot of confidence I know David, I know him well I have worked for a number

of years and I know that he knows these regulations. I have all the confidence that he

knows these regulations it could have been waived at any time yes.

Attorney McSherry that maybe so, but you are assuming this with direct knowledge

that Mr. Minnich is current and if you could recall what happened in 2006 which was

6 years ago and there is no indication in the minutes that said didn’t we do this six

years ago. There was no reference to it by staff in the memo was there.

Charles Frigon it is argument you can make I don’t agree with that.

Attorney McSherry okay we’ll agree and disagree. You had testified to a wide range

of complaints that you had received from restaurants and other businesses do you

follow.

Attorney McSherry but you never had any complaints in lighting other than the

Corey Shaker complaint about Mr. Minnich is that correct.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Charles Frigon I have received complaints against Mr. Minnich in sorts of writing

yes I have. The first being back in 2007 where he was seen going into the Planning &

Zoning Office after hours with his own keys, I don’t recall who made the complaint it

was in writing. I acted on that immediately and called Mr. Minnich and asked him to

return those keys.

Attorney McSherry did he return those keys.

Charles Frigon no he did not, I had to change the locks. There have been other

complaints but they have been dismissed.

Attorney McSherry the complaint that was subject to this hearing tonight and

previous is the complaints brought by Mr. Shaker.

Attorney McSherry now you mentioned that Mr. Shaker did receive his approval

has he filed any lawsuit on the conditions that were placed on him by the commission.

Charles Frigon not that I am aware of.

Attorney McSherry wouldn’t those lawsuits make their way to your desk

eventually.

Charles Frigon yes they would.

Attorney McSherry and he had a right to do that he could challenge any conditions

open to the statute even if you have an approval you can challenge the conditions and

try to eliminate the conditions.

Charles Frigon certainly

Attorney McSherry you testified that Mr. Minnich or any commissioner should not

participate in the complaint process being brought by the Zoning Enforcement Officer

in their investigation they shouldn’t participate in that is that correct.

Charles Frigon could you repeat that, they shouldn’t participate in what?

Attorney McSherry Zoning Enforcement issues.

Charles Frigon that is correct, that was testified to last night by Steven Byrnes.

Attorney McSherry but you are Town Manager imagine anyone that sits on a board

or commission that is public and are often contacted by neighbors and concerned

people who rely a concern to a city member or commission. What would you expect

that commissioner to do?

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Charles Frigon I would expect that commissioner to refer the complaint to her

Zoning Official. To be quite frank with you, I get a lot of complaints everyday, every

single day. My curbing is missing; I refer it to Public Works. My tax bill is incorrect;

I refer it to the Tax Office. I would suspect this would be the same.

Attorney McSherry then the larger signs of a good manager is the ability to delegate

to the proper place. Now you testified earlier that the Zoning Enforcement Officer is

part of the review process due on an annual basis, or do you do an annual evaluation.

Charles Frigon yes we do.

Attorney McSherry and you also I refer to exhibit #19 which provides the Zoning

Commission duties generally and so on throughout the whole document. If we turn to

item G are you familiar with that section.

Charles Frigon yes I am.

Attorney McSherry could you read D of that section its 36-2

Charles Frigon personnel decisions including performance evaluation discipline,

recommended salary and similar matters shall administered by the Town Manager

only with the concurrence of the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Attorney McSherry what exactly does that mean in practice for yourself and the

commission.

Charles Frigon that means to me that if I am going to make a personnel decision and

I am going to refer you to back to the ABC summary we have our Land Use

Administrator holds many different positions. Then a decision is to be made with

regard to her position in working with the Planning & Zoning Office I would work in

cooperation with them. I will also point you to E and I will read it to out loud if you

don’t mind. In general, Commission does not have day to day control over the

supervisory power over Land Use Department staff, except to the extent it has some

removal power over the ZEO and/or Assistant ZEO (who also is staff liaison to

Inland Wetlands and ZBA). No statutory or other basis for administrative control

over Land use Office by Commission.

Attorney McSherry so the Land Use Administrator has varied duties that are

extensive beyond and separate of the Zoning Enforcement Officer and what are those

duties.

Charles Frigon would you like me to read them to you. They are summarized here

duties of the office fall into 4 or 5 distinct categories: 1. Zoning Enforcement 2. Staff

Liaison to Planning and Zoning Commission 3. Zoning Board of Appeals 4.

Inland/Wetlands Commission 5. Land Use Office Department Head.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Attorney McSherry now I turn to exhibit #17 this is the discussion about the Mylar’s

do you recall testifying to that.

Attorney McSherry you are aware that with the Mylar’s there is a timing concern for

the execution and signing of the Mylar.

Charles Frigon no

Attorney McSherry and I am going to kind of say it to you and it may refresh your

memory. The Mylar once it is approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission

needs to be signed in 90 days. If it is not signed in 90 days the applicant can request a

90 day extension and do that at one other time. So it needs to be signed in 270 days

and in some instances there might be a bonding requirement. So if the process gets a

little bit complicated and timing is kind of the essence does that sound familiar at all

to you.

Charles Frigon yes I am following you.

Attorney McSherry I start reading the emails about the phone call regarding the

Mylar I think a phone call would be appropriate under those circumstances because of

the close timing concerns that an applicant might have wouldn’t you agree.

Attorney Summa I object to the question we can agree that is what he thinks. We

agree that he may think that I am not sure of the relevance

Attorney McSherry Mr. Frigon certainly can tell if he disagrees with me.

Charles Frigon I don’t agree or disagree with you. Our Planning & Zoning Office

does a wonderful job we were well aware of George’s need to get this Mylar signed.

What is the dispute here isn’t the time that it took them. What’s in dispute here is

David once again going to staff and saying that he was told it was available much

earlier and Ruth saying no it wasn’t. Within 15 minutes of it becoming available she

did make Mr. Minnich aware of that. I will also tell you which is not here because I

don’t have a copy of it. David had sent me a text regarding that and I agree with

David and I text Ruth and I told her I agree with David in the instance where a Mylar

has been signed, you have an executive assistant you should have that person call Mr.

Minnich and tell him it is available, that is what a professional office does. What I

didn’t know at the time is all of this malarkey about I called the office and it was

available sooner and then Ruth coming back and saying no the Town Engineer hasn’t

reviewed it yet and it wasn’t available until later. Yes, we are very professional here

in Watertown. Yes we make every attempt to notify the applicant, yes the applicant

did get in time and has no issue with timing what we are discussing here is a process

and what we are discussing here is Mr. Minnich should have gone to Ruth and he

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

should of asked is the Mylar ready yet because I either am going out of town or I am

not going to be available I need to sign it or Carl can sign it.

Attorney McSherry I agree that the Land Use Office is very professional and they

try to make the best efforts to take of the applicants I don’t disagree with that.

Turning to exhibit #20 page 3 of that exhibit. Now Mr. Minnich testifies in this

hearing for the Planning & Zoning Commission’s special meeting that he understood

by what was put in front of him and it doesn’t seem that’s very argument about was

given to him at, it seems like he was agreeing with what he received.

Charles Frigon it would appear that way the way I understand it.

Attorney McSherry then he follows right after that saying Chairman Minnich asked

the commission for any questions. None of the commissioners had any questions for

you is that correct.

Attorney McSherry and the document which you made part of this record which is

exhibit #19 which is very extensive, is that correct?

Charles Frigon yes it is.

Attorney McSherry did you ever ask the commission whether they would like to

come back and discuss it further or have the Town Attorney Jessell come back to

speak freely with them regarding these items.

Charles Frigon have I asked them after this meeting.

Attorney McSherry yes

Charles Frigon no

Attorney McSherry do you know timing wise when this document was prepared.

Charles Frigon it was prepared over a couple weeks time.

Attorney McSherry I guess my question is when it was ready.

Charles Frigon we brought it to the meeting with us.

Attorney McSherry so there was no opportunity to get it to the commission before

Charles Frigon no there wasn’t we just finished it that day.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Attorney McSherry you testified earlier about the April 18th

2012 Special Meeting

which is exhibit #29 and I ask you to turn to page 7 of the meeting minutes. All the

way at the bottom P & Z Commissioner Carl Mancini 4/10/2012 visits the P & Z

Office. Could you read what David Minnich says the next sentence?

Charles Frigon the issue here is to, the suggestion is to invite the Town Manager to

come to our commission and meeting and review the relationship between the

administrator and the Planning & Zoning commission members.

Attorney McSherry the motion follows pretty much reflecting that I won’t make you

read that.

Charles Frigon that is correct, yes. It was passed without any debate.

Attorney McSherry so they didn’t discuss Mr. Mancini and the incident that

occurred on April 10th

Charles Frigon no they did not.

Attorney McSherry and if somebody had an opportunity probably not I would say to

get back to the commission on that at this point or no.

Charles Frigon no I have not.

Attorney McSherry it seems to me that was a wasted effort by the commission to

reach to try fall in line what you were trying to do in early January wouldn’t you

agree.

Charles Frigon yes it is, but remember that in early January this was handed out we

were looking for some substantive conversation and this is an reenactment of that,

Attorney Summa could I ask for a two minutes break?

Raymond Primini sure

Attorney Summa thank you

Charles Frigon we had a discussion and we pretty much ended the meeting on the

charter revision although he was going to cooperate he didn’t believe that any of this

was relevant or could go any further because this all happened before December 8th

I believe Mr. Summa was asking most of the questions.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss any of the complaints that you eluded that were

in writing previously.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Charles Frigon could you be more specific please.

Attorney McSherry regarding the restaurant complaint and complaints along those

lines.

Charles Frigon no

Attorney McSherry did you discuss any of the issues with personnel and activities in

the Land Use Office.

Charles Frigon no we did not.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss any of the Freedom of Information items.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss any of the letters from Mr. Cavanaugh.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss the Carl Mancini issue.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss the Chuck Bezio complaint.

Attorney McSherry did you discuss any of the emails from Ruth Mulcahy.

Charles Frigon that I don’t recall, again I was very silent and Attorney Summa was

asking most of the questions.

Attorney McSherry but you there taking part is that correct.

Charles Frigon yes I was.

Attorney McSherry did you happen to discuss the October 27th

2006 memo from

Mr. Masayda.

Attorney McSherry I have no further questions.

Attorney Summa referring you briefly to exhibit #3. This is the actual complaint that

you sent to Mr. Minnich with the charges on it.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Attorney Summa is it fair to say that the questioning that took place in the

investigation revolved around basically these charges.

Charles Frigon absolutely they did.

Attorney Summa thank you no further questions.

Raymond Primini I would like to at this time ask council members to ask questions

if we could.

Richard Fusco what is the difference between the formal complaint and informal

hearing exhibit #2.

Attorney Summa basically that is the language used in the charter a informal hearing

basically what that means is a hearing but not tied to the strict rules of evidence and

strict court procedures.

Katherine Duplissie because of the exhibits made on the misconduct I am wondering

why when you met with Dave on the 30th

of April that you did not discuss personnel

items and the Chuck Bezio complaint, if these were part of the complaint why

weren’t they discussed at the meeting.

Attorney Summa I was the one asking the questions and I can assure you that the

questions I asked…

Attorney McSherry I object the witness has to answer.

Charles Frigon I can assure you that the questions we asked were the questions that

we needed answers to. The questions that we asked during that interview or during

that process at that time remember we still working this were the questions at that

time we needed answers to.

Thomas Winn prior to the May 10th letter you were just gathering facts to determine

what complaint you were going to list and the six complaints were brought out in the

investigation attempt before us.

Charles Frigon the other thing that I will add to that statement is the only complaints

if any, that part we haven’t concluded it was under investigation.

Thomas Winn prior to May 10th

you were putting together the informal complaints.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Mary Ann Rosa I want to clarify in my mind the time frame we are dealing with

leading up to the special meeting of the Planning & Zoning. The complaint was

received and am I recalling correctly on April 11th

Mary Ann Rosa you seem to come to an agreement that Mr. Minnich was noticed on

April 16th

Charles Frigon the 17th

I believe.

Attorney McSherry I would have to differ; essentially Mr. Minnich received the

certified mail on the 18th

of April.

Attorney Summa the Town Charter says at this stage the Town Manager shall

inform the appointee; at this point there is no requirement of certified mail or emails.

First of all on the 17th

in the morning in a letter Mr. Minnich became aware of the

complaint against him. And then in the phone conversation on the 17th

with Mr.

Minnich Chuck told him about the complaint. So he was informed on the 17th

Mary Ann Rosa by one manner or another between the 16th, 17th

we are saying that

we can all agree that Mr. Minnich had knowledge there was a complaint of some

Attorney McSherry I think we can say on the 17th

Mr. Frigon he realized there was a

formal complaint against him. He hadn’t received a copy of it as a formal complaint

he only received a letter which was not exactly saying it all.

Mary Ann Rosa I want to put that in perspective there was a Special Meeting held on

the evening of the 18th

when is the agenda normally posted for that meeting.

Charles Frigon the agenda was posted sometime in my testimony some time over the

weekend I believe it was Friday; it could have even been Monday.

Mary Ann Rosa so the agenda would have been made up then when.

Charles Frigon on Friday or Monday.

Mary Ann Rosa and we don’t know which. It is relevant to the facts as to how much

knowledge Mr. Minnich had on the complaint…

Attorney Summa I think I we can stipulate that we when put together the agenda he

probably was not aware of the personnel complaint against him. But the point is he

was aware prior to that meeting that there was a personnel complaint and it was

requested prior to the meeting not to go ahead.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Richard Fusco you say you received a lot of complaints. Are these complaints

against the department heads, complaints on boards or commissioners? Or is this the

only person.

Charles Frigon it is not the only person that I receive complaints on by a long shot

Richard Fusco you get a lot of other complaints. You don’t go any farther with it

you just listen.

Charles Frigon I do not get any formal complaints that is where our charter

mandates that I investigate.

Richard Fusco you are going to get a lot more now.

Raymond Primini how is the agenda prepared or by whom?

Charles Frigon the agenda is clearly as been testified by every witness so far it is

clearly the responsibility of the Chairman of the Planning & Zoning. You received

testimony that Mr. Minnich is very involved in the construction if you will of an

agenda. I testified under one of these documents he had mailed Ruth and wanted to

know 12a, 12b, 12c that’s David’s style. David is very hands on, he understands his

agenda before it is put together, he is more hands on than other chairperson that I

have certainly have ever seen.

Raymond Primini the meeting that was followed with two items that was discussed.

I just want you to reiterate the concerns for Freedom of Information.

Charles Frigon the concerns were a. it was an on going police investigation and b. it

involved employees who must under FOI be properly noticed that you are going to

discuss something of their performance.

Raymond Primini I just want to be clear what employee should have been notified

for FOI purposes.

Charles Frigon whatever employees they are going to talk about it would appear that

they were going to talk about Ruth Mulcahy and Roy Cavanaugh but it should have

not been done under executive session.

Joseph Polletta I am a little confused here because it appears this has been an on

going problem with Planning & Zoning for quite some time any time you hear

something in town a lot of the problems stems back to Planning & Zoning so this is

clearly a big problem and needs to be dealt with. I think that as a community we need

to look at it. But more importantly, and I am looking at the criteria and on what a

Zoning Chairman is suppose to do. In a nutshell perhaps you could tell me what a

Zoning Chairman is supposed to do. Are they suppose to be in the office or are they

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

not, can they, is it legally permitted. Can they hold special meetings I am hearing so

many things up here.

Charles Frigon some yes and some no.

Joseph Polletta it almost appears as if we have a problem identifying what the role of

the Chairman is.

Charles Frigon no we don’t.

Attorney Summa if you look at exhibit #19 it spells it out. The Town Manager is

struggling with Planning & Zoning as to what the parameters are.

Joseph Polletta so that would be under d Responsibilities of Commission Chairman.

Attorney Summa it is basically the meeting, that’s it. Run the meeting, set the

agenda

Joseph Polletta any Chairman of Planning & Zoning should not be in the office.

Charles Frigon unless they are setting agenda and they can’t do that at the meeting.

Joseph Polletta for all intensive purposes the Zoning Enforcement Officer is

supposed to be running the majority of the day to day operations of Planning &

Zoning.

Charles Frigon yes

Joseph Polletta and it should not be the responsibility of the chairman nor anybody

else on the commission.

Richard DiFederico Mr. Frigon what bothers me going back way when the key issue

were any rules broken here, the FOI was broke here and confidentiality. That is what

bothers me is confidentiality.

Charles Frigon it is one of my concerns

Richard DiFederico the commissions are they suppose to have a key?

Charles Frigon are you talking about the key to the office, no.

Richard DiFederico were any regulations broken FOI or anything like that..

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Charles Frigon it is the appearance of impropriety, it is the appearance of a zoning

commission member where an office that handles applications sensitive applications,

building applications they are not suppose to be looked at, predetermined on anything

that is really the issue. You don’t want to give our applicants any indication or

perception that there is that going on.

Katherine Duplissie you had stated yourself that you are not privy on Land Use

things but you are Zoning Enforcing Officer’s boss is that correct.

Charles Frigon I am going back exhibit #19 there are 5 different elements to that

position. When it comes zoning matters the Zoning Enforcement Officer is the liaison

to the Planning & Zoning Commission.

Katherine Duplissie Who determines her evaluation?

Charles Frigon I determine her evaluation.

Katherine Duplissie you just told me that you don’t know much about it.

Charles Frigon I told you I am not all that familiar with zoning regulations.

Katherine Duplissie you are aware of her duties day to day.

Charles Frigon I try to be.

Katherine Duplissie that’s not what I got from previous, okay thank you.

Thomas Winn when you had the meeting with David and the commission and you

set out the rules and regulations that Dave was to follow and what the commission

does and what a Chairman does correct. When this meeting occurred David injected

himself in a lot more day to day management of Planning & Zoning is that what you

are saying.

Charles Frigon that is what I am being told, yes

Thomas Winn the new rules were set out to restrict those.

Charles Frigon they are not new rules not at all.

Thomas Winn was Mr. Minnich allowed to do this and there was no complaints up

to the time you had the meeting and the rules being reinforced. Here is what I am

trying to get at. David Minnich went about his business for many, many years doing

what he did and you testified that he was very active in the Planning & Zoning; he

was active sometimes in day to day activities in the Planning & Zoning. You had a

meeting with the commission along with David spelling out what his responsibilities

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

are from now on. The question I had is, is that where he oversteps his bounds after he

was aware of what the new rules were or.

Charles Frigon the very following day and I testified to it.

Louis Razza if we knew there was a problem why did we wait so long to address it.

Attorney Summa the complication was that he was an appointed official. If he was a

department head his termination here would have been up years ago. The complexity

of the fact that Chuck did not appoint him, doesn’t hire him, he is an appointed

official made this much more difficult to deal with, which is why Paul Jessell tried

very much to clarify this and say legally these are your parameters you got to stay

within them but clearly if this was a department head he would have been before you

a long time ago.

Richard Fusco you have said that he was involved in budget process of the zoning

board am I correct. Is this unusual for a Chairman in that department

Charles Frigon it depends from board to board and I testified we appreciate when a

board or commission is somewhat involved we like to know what their needs are we

certainly respect what their wishes are.

Richard Fusco but it is not right for him to do it.

Charles Frigon I didn’t say it was not right. What I said was that you simply don’t

during a staff report in front of our applicants have that conversation about how

poorly our Planning & Zoning Enforcement Officer is working on the budget. That is

not the place is what I said.

Richard Fusco now what I am understanding is, no department head should go to

any of their boards unless it is just for the agenda now or (inaudible)

Charles Frigon all of our departments work well, I have never seen this in any other

departments.

Raymond Primini any other questions the time is twenty after ten we will start next

Attorney Summa I will have one witness next time it should be a half hour not more.

Raymond Primini I am going ask either Attorney do you have any closing

statements now.

Attorney McSherry may I inquire who the remaining witnesses.

Town Council

Special Meeting

June 13, 2012

Attorney Summa Roy Cavanaugh and it will be a half hour. I would like to make

one comment I think Louie and Joe and Rich were making. This has been an ongoing

problem but what began to change in the fall is in public (inaudible) yelling at

employees telling them they are not doing their job. The fact is that in a public

meeting he is chastising employees that technically don’t report to him.

Attorney McSherry we have heard a lot of testimony and I think what Mr. Polletta

says is a good a standard of practice and we would all like to be at that point. To Mr.

Winn’s point which was very accurate there has been a practice going and that

becomes the practice and it takes a while to get there. I don’t think a memo or exhibit

#19 changes that overnight even if you read the whole thing all the way through and

we listened to Attorney Byrne’s testimony I represent a number of town’s it is always

different everywhere it is not a perfect world because we are all human beings and

error is part of how we do things. Unfortunately but we try to do the best we can. So

the standard practice may have differed from the perfect what is set out as statutes

that has happened over time.

Raymond Primini the time is 10:20 I am going to ask for a motion of adjournment.

4. Executive Session (If Necessary). Deliberations by Town Council on the removal

of the Planning and Zoning Chairman pursuant to Watertown Town Charter

Section 406 Removal of Appointed Officials in Unpaid Positions.

5. Consider action on the removal of the Planning and Zoning Chairman pursuant

to Watertown Town Charter Section 406 Removal of Appointed Officials in

Unpaid Positions.

6. Adjournment.

(David Demirs sec. Joseph Polletta) to adjourn the Special Meeting at 10:20 p.m.

Discussion: none

Motion passed unanimously

______________________________

Raymond F. Primini, Chairman

Watertown Town Council

Approved: ______________________

Susan King, Clerk

minutes town council watertown, connecticut … · 2012-07-26 · town council special meeting june...

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